CityView Magazine - Fayetteville, NC
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/35097
l iving ON THE RIVER E The Cape Fear River brings life to our region in many ways | By Bryan Mims verything comes alive when the engine dies. At 25 miles an hour, the drone of the outboard Evinrude drowns out the melody of the river, dulling the ears and lulling the mind. After awhile you don’t notice the noise — the whining and whirring of horsepower blazing a V-shaped trail of wavelets. Deep woods and farm field scenery drift by like a silent film. But then the engine idles, it quivers and goes mute, and suddenly the river is loud with the surround-sound of birds singing and water lapping against the boat’s aluminum skin. It takes a few seconds for the auditory senses to sharpen; internal combustion is still ringing inside your head. The quiet is almost deafening, but then the soundtrack of the river begins to play in a continuous loop: The rapid-fire hammering of a woodpecker. The caw of a red-tailed hawk gliding higher than the tallest sycamores. The swoosh of wings from a Great Blue Heron that had been perched still as a plastic lawn ornament on the muddy bank, until it detects your presence. Silence is never sweeter than after the motor takes its last gasp and the Cape Fear River does all the propelling. The river asserts itself as a true life form with a language all its own: The ka-ploosh of a bass or catfish on the river’s surface. The ker- plunk of a sun-basking turtle slipping off a log. The creaking of trees in a breath of wind. The Cape Fear River provides a backdrop to my life: Always there — through the leafy Julys, through the bare Januarys — always beckoning outside my bedroom window. I live on a bluff overlooking the river some 10 miles downstream from the Person Street bridge in Fayetteville. This is our river – Fayetteville’s river. A river that is equal part workhorse and playground for our region. CityViewNC.com | 35